Thoughts & reflections by the proud uncle of a special young lady adopted from China.

Welcome!

My niece joined the family on July 12th, 2010. This special young lady's mother is my younger sister, which in classic Chinese culture makes me her Jiu Jiu (舅舅) -- thus the title of this blog. Here I intend to semi-regularly post reflections, thoughts, stories, and assorted whathaveyous pertaining to our trip to China, adoption in general, and (mostly) watching my niece grow up. Since the web is a very public place, I will attempt to maintain my family's privacy while telling the story... but I invite you to follow the blog and come along for the adventure!

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

This isn't quite a "real" post, but I had to put this up before I forgot...

On Monday evening, the whole family went to see "Beauty and the Beast" at Toby's Dinner Theater in Columbia. As usual, Robert John Biederman 125 (who played Belle's father in the show) did the pre-show intro/talk, introducing groups, singling out birthdays and anniversaries ("We have one happily married couple in the house..."), talking about upcoming shows, and so on.

Since AJ had told the box office that Mom & Dad's anniversary was this month, we had a really cool moment where he announced their 63(!) years of marriage and they got a very nice ovation from the rest of the (mostly younger) audience -- but there was a really funny moment as well.

When the various groups in attendance were introduced, it became obvious that much of the audience was school groups from around the country visiting DC during their spring breaks. Mom said something like, "Wow, Colorado... That's really far away!"

Without missing a beat, the Pipsqueak replied in her most matter-of-fact voice, "Grandma -- CHINA?!?"

Friday, April 21, 2017

Life is still way the heck more complicated than it really needs to be (IMHO) but I'm getting close to having time to put some real posts up here again soon.

In the meantime, does anyone remember the old saying, "Like flies to honey..."? Well, I think we've found a replacement: "Like kids to Kindle...." (photo taken by a family friend after Chinese school on a recent Saturday).